BUILD YOUR GUITAR CHART

TABLE OF CONTENTS
SLIDE 2 INSTRUCTIONS SLIDE 12 CREATE YOUR OWN TAB

SLIDE 3 MAJOR CHORDS SLIDE 13 STRUM PATTERNS

SLIDE 4 MINOR CHORDS SLIDE 14 MAJOR KEY CHEAT SHEET

SLIDE 5 “3 STRING” MAJOR CHORDS SLIDE 15 MINOR KEY CHEAT SHEET

SLIDE 6 “3 STRING” MINOR CHORDS SLIDE 16 SAMPLE SONG #1

SLIDE 7 POWER CHORDS SLIDE 17 SAMPLE SONG #2

SLIDE 8 BUILD YOUR OWN CHORDS SLIDE 18 SAMPLE TAB

SLIDE 9 PENTATONIC AND BLUES SCALES SLIDE 19 SAMPLE SCALE

SLIDE 10 BUILD YOUR OWN SCALES SLIDE 20 BLANK SONG PAGE

SLIDE 11 MEASURES AND BAR LINES SLIDE 21 BLANK COMPOSITION PAGE

 DISCLAIMER
Any charts made using this tool must display the words “In
the style of” before a song title. This asserts the fact that the
charts are not exact scores of the song, but instead
approximated arrangements in a particular style. This keeps
you in accordance with copyright laws and will prevent any
legal action against you or Little Kids Rock.
 INSTRUCTIONS

1. Choose the slide at the end of this PowerPoint titled “New Song”. This will be
your song chart. Duplicate this slide as many times as you want to for as many
song charts as you’d like to make.
2. Copy and paste ingredients from other slides onto your new blank slide one at a
time or select multiple items from the same slide to copy by holding down shift
while selecting objects.
3. Re-size any object by selecting it and then clicking and dragging one of the
corners of the object to the desired size. Multiple objects can be resized at the
same time by making sure they are simultaneously selected.
4. Holding the Command (ctrl alt on windows) while pressing “+” or “-” will allow
you to zoom in or out of a page to fine tune the positioning of objects. Objects
can be moved by being dragged into position or nudged using the arrow keys.
5. Double click anywhere to begin a new text box.
6. Text can be resized by selecting it and changing it’s font size.
7. Print your new song chart by choosing “print” from the file menu, and then make
sure that only the slide number containing your chart is selected in the print
dialog box.
8. Save your new song chart as a PDF by choosing this option at the bottom of the
print dialog box and typing a new title for the song chart.
 MAJOR CHORDS

C D E G A
X O O XX O O OO O O O XO O

1 1

2 1 2 2 3 2 1 2 3

3 3 3 4

MOVEABLE MAJOR BARRE CHORDS

The three chords below have editable letter names and fret numbers.

C OR C C
3fr 3fr 8fr
 MINOR CHORDS

X
C# m i X
Ebm i X
B bm i
1 1 4fr 1 1 6fr 1 1

2 2 2

3 4 3 4 3 4

Cm i D m i Em i A m i B m i
X XX O O O OO XO O X

1 1 3fr 1 1 1 1 2fr
2 2 2 3 2 3 2

3 4 3 3 4

MOVEABLE MINOR BARRE CHORDS

The three chords below have editable letter names and fret numbers.

Cmi Cmi
3fr 8fr
 3 STRING MAJOR CHORDS

EasyD b EasyEb EasyF# EasyA b Easy B b

XXX XXX X X X XX X
X X X
1 2 1 2 3fr 1 1 4fr 1

3 3 2
1 1
3 4
2

Easy C Easy D Easy E Easy F Easy G Easy A EasyB

X X X O O XXX X X X OO X X X X X X O O XXX O XXX
1 2fr

1 2 1 2

3 4 3

MOVEABLE 3 STRING MAJOR CHORD SHAPES

The three chords below have editable letter names and fret numbers.

XXX
C XXX
C XXX
C
1 3fr 1 1 8fr 1 2 12fr
2 3

4 3
 3 STRING MINOR CHORDS

EasyC # m i EasyD # m i EasyF# m i EasyG # m i EasyB bm i

XXX X X X XXX XX X
XXX
1 1 1 4fr 1
1 1 2fr

2 1 1 1 2
3

3 3

E a s y C m i E a s y D m i E a s y E m i E a s y F m i E a s y G m i E a s y A m i EX aXs Xy B m i
XXX XX X X XX O OO X X X X X X X XX O

1 3fr 1 1 1 2fr

2 2 3 2

3 3 3

MOVEABLE 3 STRING MINOR CHORD SHAPES

The three chords below have editable letter names and fret numbers.

Cmi
XXX
Cmi
XXX XXX
Cmi
1 3fr 1 1 1 8fr 1 12fr
2 2

3 3
 POWER CHORDS

The “Power Chords” below have editable letter names and fret numbers.
The chart at the bottom of the page shows the note locations of the fret numbers.

3 SRING POWER CHORDS 2 SRING POWER CHORDS 2 SRING POWER CHORDS

have a fuller sound… are easier to play… smaller hand fingering…

C5 C5 C5 C5 C5 C5
3fr 8fr 3fr 8fr 3fr 8fr
BUILD YOUR OWN CHORD INGREDIENTS

Place these objects

on or over chord
3 fret chord boxes boxes. Copy and
paste to make
duplicates. They
can be re-sized.
O X

1 2 3 4

4 fret chord boxes

Click on the chord

letter or fret number
to type a new one.

C 8fr
 COMMON PENTATONIC AND BLUES SCALES
C m a jo r G M a jo r D m a jo r A m a jo r
p e n t a t o n ic p e n t a t o n ic p e n t a t o n ic p e n t a t o n ic
1 1 1 1 1 1 5 fr. O O O O O O 1 1 1 1 1 1 7 fr. 1 1 1 1 1 1 2 fr.

3 3 3 2 2 2 3 3 3 3 3 3
4 4 4 3 3 3 4 4 4 4 4 4
1 4 = Roo t not e s 0 3 = Ro ot no t e s 1 4 = Roo t not e s 1 4 = Roo t not e s

C m in o r G m in o r D m in o r A m in o r
p e n t a t o n ic p e n t a t o n ic p e n t a t o n ic p e n t a t o n ic
1 1 1 1 1 1 8fr. 1 1 1 1 1 1 3 fr. 1 1 1 1 1 1 10 fr. 1 1 1 1 1 1 5 fr.

3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3
4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4
1 3 = Ro ot not e s 1 3 = Roo t no t e s
1 3 = Ro o t no t e s 1 3 = Roo t no t e s

C B lu e s G B lu e s D B lu e s A B lu e s
S c a le S c a le S c a le S c a le
1 1 1 1 1 1 8fr. 1 1 1 1 1 1 3fr. 1 1 1 1 1 1 10fr. 1 1 1 1 1 1 5 fr.

2 2 2 2
3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3
4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4
BUILD YOUR OWN SCALE INGREDIENTS

Use these finger

numbers for the
root of a scale

1 2 3 4

Use these finger

numbers for the
notes in a scale

1 2 3 4
 MEASURES AND BAR LINES

Drag a repeat sign over a bar line, resize, create your own measures, etc…
 CREATE YOUR OWN TAB

Drag numbers onto string lines, drag a repeat sign over the beginning or end,
crop an image to create custom lengths, resize, etc…
Hint: Zoom in (from the view menu) to make placing images easier!
 STRUM PATTERNS

1 2 3 4 1+2+3 4
rhythm A rhythm H

1 2 3 4 1+2+3+4 Use these elements

rhythm B rhythm I to create your
own custom
1 2 3 4 1+2 3+4 strum patterns!
rhythm C rhythm J

1 2 3 4 1 2+3+4+ 1 2 3 4 +
rhythm D
rhythm K

1 2 3+4 1+2 3+4+ 1 2 3 4 +

rhythm E rhythm L

1 2+3+4 1+2 3 4
rhythm F rhythm M

1 2 3+4+ 1 2+3+4+
rhythm G rhythm S
CHORDS RELATED BY MAJOR KEY
CHORDS RELATED BY MINOR KEY
 SAMPLE SONG In The Style Of “Open Your Eyes”
Verse 4X
Chorus 4X G C
O O O X O O

2 2

3 4 3

Em i C
O O OO X O O

2 3 2

Verse strum pattern Chorus strum pattern

1 2 3 4 1+ 2+ 3+ 4 +
rhythm A

In this song chart, all of the ingredients were copied and pasted from their respective pages.
The strum pattern for the chorus wasn’t listed as one of the choices on the strum pattern page
so I created it by assembling it from the ingredients there. This slide can be used as a template
since you can move, add, or delete anything on it.
 SAMPLE SONG In The Style Of “Say Something”

Dsus2/B Dsus2/G Dsus2 Dsus2/A

Verse OXX O OXX O OXX O OXX O

+
1 1 1 1
Chorus 2 2 2 2

Dsus2
OXX O
Dsus2/F#
OXX O Dsus2/G
OXX O
Dsus2 Dsus2/A
OXX O OX X O

Pre
1 1 1 1
Chorus 2 2 2 2
1

This chart uses a non-typical chord that is easy to play and never changes because of the way it
relies on the bass notes. To make it I copied and pasted onto this blank slide the bar lines from
slide 11 and the “Build Your Own Chord” ingredients I needed from slide 8. The Dsus2 chord I
built was too big to fit 2 in a measure, so I selected all of the ingredients at once by dragging a
box around them and then clicking and dragging in the corner of one of the objects to resize
them all together. To print this newly created song chart choose print from the file menu and
make sure that only slide 17 is selected to print. This slide can be used as a template since you
can move, add, or delete anything on it.
 SAMPLE TAB Riff in the style of“It’s Time”

To create TAB for the riff from “It’s Time” by Imagine Dragons the needed ingredients
were copied and pasted from the “Create Your Own TAB” slide and assembled on this
page. Since this riff is only one measure long and doesn’t take up much space I
stretched out the six string background so that the beats the fret numbers line up to can
be seen more easily. This slide can be used as a template since you can move, add, or
delete anything on it.
 SAMPLE G MAJOR SCALES

G Major Scale G Major Scale

(“E” shape) (“C” shape)
1 1 1 1 1 2fr 1 1 1 1 1 1 7fr
2 2 2 2 2 2 2
3 3 3 3 3
4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4
2 2
4 Roots 4 Roots

These G Major scales were assembled using the ingredients from the “Build Your Own
Scale” page. The root notes at the bottom of each scale were re-sized to appear smaller.
These are examples from the CAGED system of major scale shapes. Using the “Build Your
Own Scale” page you can create anything for your students that they need based on the
way you develop your evolving program. This slide can be used as a template since you
can move, add, or delete anything on it.
 In the style of: NEW SONG

Click on the edge of this text box to select it then delete it. Double
click the title to type your own. Select, copy, and paste any
ingredients from any page to assemble your new song chart on this
blank page. To make more blank song pages select “Duplicate Slide”
from the “Insert” menu. Choose “Save As” in the file menu to make
a duplicate copy of this PowerPoint that you can re-name and play
around with while not worrying about messing up the original file.
 In the style of: NEW COMPOSITION

Verse 4X

Copy any four chords into this top line of music. This will be your verse.
(hint: you can use the major and minor chord cheat sheets on slides 14 and 15 to see
which chords fit together in different keys)

Chorus 4X

Copy any four chords into this bottom line of music. This will be your chorus.

Copy any strum patterns and scales for taking a solo into this section of the chart.